Osage Oranges

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What can you do with Osage Oranges? Does anybody have a craft idea? Any information would be nice. Thanks

-- (jtclibra15@aol.com), November 29, 2001

Answers

I always wondered if yuo could dry them,,like apple faces,, not sure if it would work. ABout the only thing I know to do with them,, is use them for baseball,, or,, colored snowball fights

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 29, 2001.

We had an elderly neighbor that said "Well, mostly-you pick them up."

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), November 29, 2001.

Here in SE Ohio they are called hedge apples. People put them in their basement and under sinks to repell spiders and water bugs. I have people come from the city to gather them for that reason. I personally have never used them and just throw them out of the yard. Several years ago I was in Toledo, Ohio at convention with my husband and one of the things to entertain the wifes was to go to a craft store. Did I get a shock -there in a bushel basket for 75 cents each was the hedge apples and within 15 minutes they were gone. There was also a wreath made with a cardboard circle and sliced dried hedge apples glued and sprayed with schelac- $10.00. I knew then if I ever went back there in October what I would load the van with. I'm sure there is a lot of uses for them. Oh, one other thing When I had a ginseng growing work shop this past Oct. and several people were loading their cars up with them. Someone was saying how the wood was a prime wood used in making hunting bows and knife handels- another usage other then fence post.

Lenny

-- darlene (dleonhart@sprynet.com), November 29, 2001.


I don't know what this is, but it peaked my interest. Here from osageorange.com:

"Osage Orange is of interest from root to fruit.The bark of the roots is of a bright orange color and furnishes a yellow dye;the ridged and scaly bark of the trunk furnishes tannin for making leather;the branches have attractive leaves with thorns at their bases;the pollen-bearing and seed-bearing flowers are borne upon seperate trees. These round heads mature into one of the strangest fruits known to science:the so-called "Hedgeapple" is a greenish compound fruit made up of a large number of seed-bearing fruits grown together on their edges. The Osage Orange can be propagated very easily and makes good hedges and also a bushy tree that when loaded with fruit attracts much attention.The wood is also relatively immune from insect and fungis attack."

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 29, 2001.


oh. Now that I see the picture, I see that I have some of these on our property. I am going to have to rustle some up after the downpour and put in the house to repel insects.

In fact, related to an earlier post I had about avoiding spiders in my boots--It would be very easy to slip these hedgeapples in and out when I put my boots on!

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 29, 2001.



Someone stop me before I post again on this subject! Look at this website and see all the wonderful things that can be done with the fruit. The most interesting one was the clay pot glaze made from the ashes (of the tree?).

Im so excited! I may have to package these up in my christmas gifts! Yeeha!

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 29, 2001.


Oops, forgot to tell you where:

http://hedgeapple.com

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 29, 2001.


Hi! Lenny is right about the wood being great for bows; it is considered the best of the best. If you have some to get rid of check out e-bay as I understand that it is extremely expensive on there. A friend of mine is going to teach a group of us to make what are called "self" bows out here, (I suppose because you make them yourself). My friend makes Cherokee long bows, (thats what he will teach us,) he is Cherokee and says that Osage Orange is the best for bow making. Quite a market for the wood here in Oregon as a lot of competitive bowyers (sp?) prefer se

-- Leslie Coray (leslie@webolium.com), November 30, 2001.

Sounds like if you get a portable sawmill to cut up a trunk into 2" squares however long needed for bows, eBay may be a profitable market for the blanks.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 30, 2001.

I turned a table lamp out of a peace of hedgeapple wood and you would not beleave how pretty the wood becomes after about a year.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), November 30, 2001.


Hereabouts they're called "monkey balls" My friend says half of her horses will eat them & half won"t.

-- Elizabeth Quintana (rockshelter@webtv.com), November 30, 2001.

this is for Leslie a self bow is made from a single piece of wood as opposed to a composite bow which is made of laminates including wood, horn, hide, sinew and even metal.

-- pops (pops762@hotmail.com), December 03, 2001.

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